The Romford Model Railway society, based at The Billet, in Fairkytes Arts Centre, in Billet Lane, Hornchurch, showed off their creative model railways at an open day on Saturday.

Member of the society, Laurie Calvert, 52, of St Andrew’s Avenue, Elm Park, said: “It was a good opportunity for us to showcase our work and to display just some of what we have been doing.”

The society currently has 25 members and has been running for 42 years. It is now based at the arts centre where they work on creating and putting together their models.

Laurie said: “It’s not really about the trains, but what you build around them. The scenery is usually far more interesting than the trains themselves so it was nice to give other people a chance to see what we do.”

Members of the society produced displays that took them around five months to produce, including Laurie’s science-fiction theme railway, with crashed spaceships, aliens and even a dinosaur or two thrown into the mix!

He said: “I wanted to do something a little bit different, something I don’t think anyone has ever done before and creating this was a great way to be creative.

“Model railways isn’t just for people who love trains but creative people who want to help to build something from their imagination.”